2019 Chicago Peace Fellows

The Goldin Institute invites you to learn about each of our Chicago Peace Fellows representing 14 neighborhoods across the city as they join together and establish a community of practice determined to promote peace across the city!

Overview

Peace Fellows participate in GATHER, an online asset-based community engagement course, as well as in-person training, collaborative action projects, and networking experiences with civic leaders, academic researchers, and policy makers. The Chicago Peace Fellows reduce violence by building relationships, engaging youth, collaborative peace building projects over the summer and by creating new networks among residents, families, schools, and nonprofit organizations.

Meet the 2019 Chicago Peace Fellows

Adi Lerner

Director, Westside Justice Center

Alex Levesque

Founder and CEO, Automotive Mentoring Group

Dawn Hodges

Executive Director, Imani Community Development Corporation

Diane Latiker

Founder, Kids Off The Block

Frank Latin

Senior Advisor, Multimedia Storytelling

Gloria Smith

Executive Director, The Black Star Project

Jacquelyn Moore

Founder, Chicago Knights Robotics Team

Jamila Trimuel

Founder, Ladies of Virtue

Jeanette Coleman

Director, I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER UNITY DAY

Johnny Payton

Founding Member, Brothers Standing Together

Lisa D. Daniels

Founder, Darren B. Easterling Center for Restorative Practices

Maria Velazquez

Executive Director, Telpochcalli Community Education Project

Pamela Butts

Director, Non-Public Programs, Chicago Public Schools

Pamela Phoenix

President, Phoenix Life Solutions

Robert E. Biekman

Senior Pastor of Maple Park United Methodist Church

Robin Cline

Assistant Director, NeighborSpace

Sokoni Karanja

President, 2016 Ma'at

Velvian Boswell

Recovery Specialist, Chicago Women’s AIDS Project

About the Program

The Chicago Peace Fellows project connects and equips cohorts of past grantees of the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities to reduce violence and promote peace. The 2019 Chicago Peace Fellows is the first all-Chicago cohort to utilize the GATHER platform, an online learning hub built by the Goldin Institute to empower grassroots leaders.

The Chicago Peace Fellows will engage in a 22-week course of intensive shared learning as well as group projects, culminating in a graduation event in October 2019. The curriculum has been designed in collaboration with the grantees themselves, based on their practical knowledge and hard earned wisdom, with input from a wide range of civic leaders. Fellows will reflect on their past summer work, identify successes and lessons learned, and improve their abilities by sharing strengths and learning new skills.

The Goldin Institute and the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities have aligned missions that value authentic community leadership. The Chicago Fund is uniquely effective at finding motivated problem-solvers and community-builders. By connecting Chicago leaders through GATHER, their efforts to nurture safer and more peaceful communities will be more effective, interconnected and lasting.

Learn about our GATHER platform

The Fellows are learning together through GATHER, which is both a mobile platform for shared learning and a curriculum for people who want to build on the talents of their neighbors and the assets of their communities to make real and lasting change. Gather Fellows learn and work together through an innovative curriculum that comes pre-loaded on a tablet device with all the connectivity, materials, videos, practices and tools necessary to provide a mobile classroom and toolkit for community leadership.

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Chicago Peace Fellows Team

Tony Raggs

Tony Raggs

Senior Advisor, Violence Prevention

Cree Noble

Cree Noble

Team Coordinator

Burrell Poe

Burrell Poe

Director, Mutual Aid Collaborative

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson

Director, Chicago Peace Fellows

John Zeigler

John Zeigler

Senior Director of Programs